An empty wandering
by mizzyjane
Summary: Cashlin and her mother moved to the small town of Relento Hill to try and escape the sadness and horror of a recent tragedy. Soon Cashlin begins to realize this town isn't as peaceful and quite as they thought. Things feel weird, and wrong. And of course, there's all the murders going on as well. The sick, intricate murders. Cashlin struggles daily to stay sane in her new life.
1. Chapter 1

Hello hello. Welcome to my new fanfic. Umm I really enjoyed writing this as Im so obsessed with AHS right now. I go through phases with obsessions haha. But anyways, I hope you guys like this story! Please review if you like(:

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"This place is a desolate wasteland, why would you pick this place, of all places, for us to fucking move to." The auburn haired girl asked from the back seat of her mother's car. She was slouched down in her seat, her feet pushed up against the back of the passenger sides seat. She had a pair of large green headphones down around her neck, and if one strained they would be able to hear music coming from them. She had turned it down to speak to her mother once they started driving into the town.

She had never seen the house they were moving too, or even the town, before now. Her mother had told her they were moving, and she easily accepted it, they was nothing that had kept her attached to her old town. She had no friends too graduate with, so being uprooted from her school in her final year wasn't a problem. But she had assumed they were moving somewhere nice. This place was awful. The grass looked completely dead everywhere and there were barely any trees. It was unsettling.

"Cash please, I know it's not the nicest town, but the real estate was really cheap here and that's why we got a house with so much land on it, for all the animals to roam around on." Her mother said. Cash's head turned to look into the back of the van at the two cats and one dog sitting patiently in their carriers. Both of the cats were outdoor, and Carly, their yellow lab, was very smart and would never wander too far from the property.

She said nothing back to her mother only put her headphones back on and continued staring out the window. It was a grey, overcast day. It set the perfect mood for their move. It's like it was screaming at Cash no matter where they go they can't escape the darkness in their lives. She shook her head after a shudder ran down her spine out of nowhere, and turned her head away from the window. They were now approaching the new house, and she wanted to get a good look at it.

It wasn't that big, it was only a two bedroom, two story house. One story including the basement. The outside was interesting, had a very decorative look to it. All the windows were circular, and the brick work on the walls was an amazing pattern of dark red brick with a light, more salmon coloured brick. The whole property was surrounding by a fairly old wooden fence. It was fallen over in some sections, mostly near the backing into the woods.

The car came to a rolling stop close to the front of the house, they had a very long driveway, there nearest neighbour couldn't be seen from where they were. Cash and her mother both stepped out of the car and took a long look at the house. Cash had to admit, the house was gorgeous.

"Here" Her mother said, throwing the keys into the house over the car. She just caught them, leaning forward a bit to grab them before they made it passed her. "All the bigger stuff has already been moved in by the moving company, we just have these boxes." Her mother started to pull things out of the back, and Cash went and unlocked the front door.

It opened with a light creak, it was a little stiff, and Cash had to give it one solid push to get it out of its frame. After she pushed it the door swung open fast, it blew a bit of dust in its way. The house was dark and cold, it didn't have a very inviting feeling even though it was already furnished with most of their own things. Cash looked back at her mother who was still unloading things from the car before stepping into the house.

The floor was a dark stained hardwood, and the walls were oak paneling. It almost felt like a cottage, but despite the old interiors, all the technology was fully updated. Stepping into the kitchen was almost like stepping into another world, it was in a separate part of the house that was built on much later to accommodate the past owners of the home. In the living room a large television was built into a large stand.

All of a sudden Cash could hear the noise of nails scratching against the floor and it came up quickly behind her, something jumping onto her back. She turned her upper body around a bit to see her dog on his hind legs leaning against her. "Hi Carly, excited to be in your new home?" She asked, bending down next to the dog and petting her head.

"Cash, Honey, Come take the cats please, and then close the door behind me. I'm going to keep unloading stuff and I don't want them going outside until they're settled into the new environment first. Cash stood up and began walking towards the front door, Carly trailing behind.

She got to her mother and she handed her to two crates the cats were in before stepping back out and closing the door behind her. Cash opened the cages and their oldest cat, Oscar, ran away quickly and probably hide somewhere. He didn't like new places. But the other cat, Artemis, his behaviour was a little out of the ordinary for him. He didn't come out of his crate. He was backed up against the wall of it, looking frightened.

He was barely a kitten anymore, a little over a year old, but still held that same confidence and inquisitive nature as most kittens do. Normally in a new place he'd come out sniffing the air in curiosity then would immediately leave to go explore his new home.

Cash leaned down and peered into the cage, trying to coax him out of it but he would not budge. She sighed and closed the gate on the crate before opening the door and calling out to her mother, "Artemis won't get out of his crate!" She screamed half way across the property.

Her mother motioned for her to come down near the car, so closing the door completely behind her she jogged across the front lawn and down the driveway to her mother. She handed her a few duffle bags, "This is some of your stuff. Your room is the one at the end of the hall on the left, just go take Artemis in there and start unpacking, he'll calm down." Cash nodded grabbing the bags with both hands and slowly dragging them back to the house. They were heavy, she could hardly remember what she had packed in them.

She pushed the door of the house back open and began dragging the bags to her room now. It took her a minute, though the house only had the one floor that they used, it was a very long home. When she finally got there she opened the door and was shocked with what she saw. The bedroom was massive, but she should have already figured that out. It was a two bedroom home, but it was huge, so obviously the rooms must be huge. The ceiling was incredibly high and had wooden beams all across the top for support. In the middle of the room sat a queen sized cherry wood canopy bed. Her dark purple sheets were already on them.

She tossed the bags up on the bed then went to go get Artemis. She took a look at him before she picked up his crate and he was still pressed against the back. Slowly and carefully not to shake the crate and scare him more she took him into her bedroom. She closed the door mostly, but left it open just about an inch.

She put him down on the floor and opened the door, she didn't have time to try and get him out now, she wanted to start unpacking. She unzipped the first duffle bag, it was all books. That would explain why it was so heavy. All the major large furniture had been moved into the house already, so all she needed to do was organize and put away all her clothes and belongs.

She pulled the bag off the bed and over to her empty bookcase and began stacking them one by one to fill the shelves. Both of the bags were books, and it took about half an hour because she kept changing her mind on how to organize them, but after that she finally had one finished part in her bedroom. She looked upon the book case happily, having completed something, no matter how small, was always rewarding. She went to go back outside to get more of her stuff, but before she stopped to check if Artemis had left his crate. He had.

When Cash stepped back outside it was a bit chillier and darker than earlier, the sun was slowly beginning to set. When her mother came within her view she saw her speaking with another woman, with a short girl beside her. The closer she got the more she could see of them, The taller older one was very elegant looking. She had on a red skirt, a button down top and a loose red sweater on top. Her hair was up and done nicely, and her makeup was simple but perfect. She looked a little older, but still very young and pretty. The girl beside her was significantly shorted and significantly different looking, not just from the woman beside her, but from most people. The girl clearly had down syndrome or some other similar disorder.

"Cashlin!" her mother called when she noticed her presence come up behind them. She walked quickly to cover the last few steps between her and the rest of them, "This is my daughter Cashlin," her mother said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Cashlin these are our neighbours, Constance and Adelaide."

Cash looked at them both. Adelaide looked at her with an interested smile, and Constance's face stayed the same. "Nice to meet you dear. It's so nice to finally have neighbours again, we thought that house would never sell." Constance commented.

Cash's mother shrugged, "Well it was a good price, and big enough to us and the animals, the history of homes never really concerns me. "

Constance nodded, "Pets? Cats I hope." She said, then quickly looked over at Cash.

"Yes actually… two cats and a dog." Cash's mother said, a little confused by the comment. She changed the subject to something else and then began mindlessly chatting away. Cash began looking around at her surrondings, noticing she could just slightly see through all the trees towards the neighbouring house. They were at the end of the street and only had one neighbour, so the house Cash was looking at must have been Constance's.

As she was staring at the house she almost began to zone out, she was staring, but not focused on anything at all. Something broke her out of it, she saw something go past the window's in Constance's house. Her head turned away and she interrupted their conversation immediately, "Constance, do you have other children?" Cash asked her.

The woman seemed unprepared for the question, and froze a little. Adelaide started laughing and also looking towards the house. "Why would you ask that?" Constance asked, her eyes narrowing a bit as she stared at Cash.

Cash pointed at the window in her house she had been staring into, "I saw someone walk by that window, someone with dirty blonde hair." Cash said, almost willing the person to show back up in the window so she didn't seem crazy.

Constance avoided the question. She looked up towards the sky, at Adelaide, and then back to Cash's mother. "It's getting quite dark. Your eyes must be playing trick on you. I suppose we'll head home for the evening, but please, if you need anything don't hesitate to come over and ask." She said with a smile.

Cash's mother thanked her for her kindness then turned back to pulling things from the car. Constance gave Cash one more strange look before heading back to her home with Adelaide. "Well they're certainly interesting neighbours." Her mother commented with a laugh. Cash laughed too, she pushed away the strange feeling she had helped her mother finish unpacking the car.

When they were done she brought all of her things into her bedroom. Artemis had clearly calmed down as he was curled up on the bottom of her bed sleeping. She collapsed onto her bed, this day had been exhausting even though it was mostly travelling. She could feel her eyelids weighting down on her and she decided she would go to sleep now and get an early start on unpacking tomorrow morning.

She fixed herself up for bed getting changed into a loose t-shirt and a pair of tight back shorts. She turned off the lights and crawled into her bed. As she began to fall asleep she saw the flash of dirty blonde hair again. This time she saw it through her window, whoever it was they were outside.


	2. Chapter 2

Hello hello again. Thank you for coming to read chapter two! Don't have much to say at the moment, just read and enjoy! And if you do enjoy please don't hesitate to let me know by a review ;)

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The next morning started rather abruptly, Cash felt a violent shaking all throughout her body and somewhere in the distance someone speaking. "Oh Jesus Christ, Cash wake up." Her mother sighed as she shook her unmoving body. With a few groans she finally rolled over and opened her eyes. "'You're late for school, come on. The school year has already started too you can't afford to miss any days." She lectured her as Cash sat in her bed glaring for waking her up.

"Fine," She snapped, "I'll get ready. Now get out of my room then."

"Okay, hurry up. I'm taking my car that's away in the garage. You take the van. I'm going to leave now for work, so make it to school on time." She repeated one last time before closing the bedroom door behind her and leaving.

Cash slowly pulled her body out of bed and stretched her arms high above her head before standing up. First she opened her dresser drawers and picked out a pair of white skinny jeans and dark orange top. She didn't put much effort into looking good, she cared little to back a good first impression at this school. After that she went into her bathroom, brushed her teeth, washed her face, make up etc.

She put her things away underneath the sink and as she went to stand and leave, the sunlight coming in through the window caught it's light of something shinny. She reached down, far past all her own things, past the plumbing for the sink and felt around till she got her hands on it. It was a bottle of some sort, it was wedged behind the pipes. She tugged and twisted for a few minutes before I popped lose so fast she almost fell backwards.

Perfume. It was perfume. Cash examined it, it was an incredibly old looking bottle. It was covered in a thick layer of dust and grim, the name of it had long since worn of the bottle and it's old fashioned embellished pump had frayed and lost almost all of its cover. Now it was just a big plastic ball of air just used to pump the perfume out. Cash was never much of a perfume girl, she would just always forget she had it and never wear it. But she liked how old it was, something a previous owner must have lost and forgotten under the sink. She pushed down on the pump twice, spraying herself.

It smelt like a walk through an enormous garden. The flower smell was overwhelming, she started feeling a little dizy almost. All of a sudden she was completely nauseas and her vision went black. She fell against the wall trying to support herself with one hand while the other rubbed her eyes furiously trying to get her vision back.

She started to see something underneath the darkness so she stopped. She saw a man. He was holding the perfume bottle, at least that's what Cashlin assumed. It was new, and looking completely different. He handed off the perfume bottle to her, or at least that's how it seemed. He was smiling so much when he was holding the perfume, but after he handed it off his face slowly started to twist and distort. It grew more and more twisted till it looked like a monster. Cash didn't like this anymore, she tried rubbing her eyes again to make it go away but that just made him walk closer. She didn't know when she had started screaming, but at some point she realized she was. His face didn't look human anymore. The features were moved to places that were horrifying, his mouth came off the top of his forhead and his eyes kept swinging back and forth across his face change spots.

She lost her support and fell to the ground with a loud thud. It stopped then, everything was back. She came back to reality slowly, and heard the door bell ringing. She hurriedly stood up and fast walked down the hall to the door. When she swung it open it was the woman from yesterday, Constance, standing at the door.

"Are you alright dear? I heard screaming." She asked with light concern, but it just sounded more like general curiosity to Cash.

Cash was a little stunned. Had she been screaming that much? That loud? What even was all that? She pushed it to the back of her mind and lied, "Oh sorry about that. I saw a pretty ugly spider but one of my cats killed it."

Constance nodded, but she didn't look convinced. She looked down and Cash's eyes followed, interested to see whatever the older woman was fixated on. It was her hand, or the perfume to be more exact, she hadn't put it down. She slowly looked back up and met Cash's gaze, "Well then…. You stay safe in your home" She said with a smile before walking away.

Cash watched the woman walk away and she stood there with the door opening even after she had already gone back into her house. Cash decided she didn't like this woman, she didn't like the way she said things, like everything had a second meaning.

She gave up on staring and closed the door behind her. She looked at the clock placed on the wall, she would be late for school, oh well. She went to the kitchen and through together some kind of food with what they had in their fridge. She put a single binder and one pencil in a large purse and then put her food in as well. Then she grabbed her wallet, her smokes, a lighter and her car keys before she headed out the door.

She had yet to see her new school yet, but it was only about ten minutes away so she managed to drive there without getting lost. The school building was old, she could tell before she had even got into the parking lot. For some reason all the major buildings in this city were made of grey brick and the school seemed to be no exception.

She headed into the building and the halls were completely empty, everyone would be in first period by now. She was only about 15 minutes late she hoped the teacher wouldn't make a big deal when she walked in. She was wrong.

As she opened the door the entire class turned to look at her along with the teacher. An average man in build and size, he wore glasses as well. He looked displeased about being interrupted, "I'm so sorry you couldn't get here to join us on time, is there any reason for that?" He asked as she cocked his head to the side.

Cash's mouth felt dry, she tried not to look at the other students. "Umm… no sorry I'm just new here." Even worse, now people seemed more interested. It was a small town, so no doubt they had all been watching to see if that house sold, and now they all get to see the one of the weird new people.

The teachers face changed, he actually got a little red in the face, and apologized, "Oh I'm sorry, Ms. Green, correct?" Cash nodded. "Okay, Class, this is our new student, Cashlin Green. Everyone please make her feel welcome, and um, Ms. Rite please raise your hand," a dirty blonde haired girl raised her hand, "So you can go take a seat of there with Ms. Rite then." He said with a smile, gesturing in the direction of her.

As Cash walked too her seat she tried to look down as much as possible to avoid eye contact with any of them. She took her seat next to the girl, and she looked over at her with a smile before looking back at the board, she seemed nice enough. For that first period Cash paid little attention to the actual lesson, she was staring out the windows, doodling on her binder and look at the other students.

Near the end of the class as everyone was just waiting out the last few minutes for the bell to ring she noticed here was someone who sat two people in front of her too the left. She couldn't see his face, but for some reason something about him felt familiar. She sat their staring at him for so long before she got it. _He was the one you saw walk by the window_, She realized.

She was brought out of her creepy staring by a female voice, the girl next to her. "Hey, I'm Alexias." She had said with a smile. She was a pretty girl, a tiny bit paler then Cash with such dark black hair it was clearly a dye job, but it suited her. She had a small dark purple gem stud in her nose.

"Oh, Hi. I'm Cashlin, but most people call me Cash for short." She responded to the girl, Alexias. Such an interesting name. Cash and met many Alexas but never any Alexias, it was a cute spin on what was fast becoming an overused name.

"Oooh, Cash, I love that!" She said almost mimicking Cash's thoughts and also complimenting her name. "I heard you had just moved her from pretty far away, I came here in grade ten so I know what it's like being the new girl. If you need any help finding a class or something just track me down and I'd love to help you." Cash already liked this girl. The way she had said that was so casual, she hadn't said it in an over the top nice tone, but it still had all the sincerity of truth in it. Just hearing her say that made Cash feel a little better and more comfortable about being in this strange new town. She'd had to get Alexias alone later and talk to her to see if she noticed all the strange things in this town when she first moved her as well.

With a light, almost embarrassed smile Cash thanked her and they both went back to their own things waiting for the bell to ring. Cash slowly started packing the few things she had actually brought with her into her purse and then began observing the class again, eventually turning her attention back to the dirty blonde boy.

She stared at the back of his head for a while, she knew it had to be him, because that's all she had seen, was the back/side of his head. He seemed about the same height, and the hair was definitely an exact match. It was the same length, and same colour. As if he could feel her eyes on his back his head slowly turned around and looked in her direction. She turned her head from side to side looking to see if it was perhaps someone else he was trying to make eye contact with, but everyone else had their eyes straight on the board. He was definitely looking right at her. For some reason her heart began to pound quite rapidly in her chest. It was a combination of fear and anxiety, but why?

He stared directly at her, he was staring past her eyes trying to see more, she could tell, but since the tragedy in her family she had become quite well and hiding all emotion, even in her eyes. He didn't stare with a smile or a menacing look; he just stared with a blank face.

The bell rang, it seemed to knock Cash out of the trance she had been stuck in staring at him. After one last second of staring, he smiled at her, or more of a half smirk really, before turning to walk out of the class. Cash watched him walk away till he went out the door and then through her bag over her shoulder and followed into the crowded halls of teenagers.

The rest of the day seemed to follow the same pattern, go to class, get introduced as the new girl, have a few people make some small conversation with her, one extending a lunch invitation and she spent her time in the cafeteria with her during her lunch break. No sign of the blonde boy again, although Cash wasn't even really sure why she was keeping an eye out for him.

It was almost the end of the day, there was one period left, and although Cash didn't have a class scheduled for that period she decided to spend it in the library instead of going home. Her mom wouldn't be home till four, and she didn't want to have to spend any more than any hour in that house by herself. There was something just… off about it. Her mother had mentioned the house had a bit of a darker past, but nothing specific.

She browsed through the library aisle for about twenty minutes before picking two interesting books to flip through to kill time. One was an autobiography about David Bowie, and another was a travel book. The library was fairly empty but she still decided to go find herself the most isolated space to be, she didn't like to be around people while reading.

Taking a seat she started flipping through the autobiography on David Bowie. She had read it once before, so she was more just skimming through and re-reading her more favorite parts, David Bowie had always been her favorite musician, even though her love for him sprang from a movie. As a child, Cash's favorite movie was Labyrinth. After purchasing the sound track for the movie and seeing all the songs were sung by David Bowie, she then proceeded to start listening to his self-released albums.

During one particularly interesting part of the book, Cash was so distracted by the book she didn't realize the presence of another person until it was too late. A book was dropped on the table right in front of her; it was fairly large and made a fairly loud noise. "You should read that." Said a voice from behind her.

She swung her head around, hair flying behind her, to glare at the person who had come into her reading space and startled her. Her glare fell away to shock which she quickly had to cover up when she saw who it was. The blonde boy. He walked around to the other side of the library table and took a seat across from Cash he looked at her with a bit of a smirk and a raised eyebrow,

"Sorry, Did I scare you?"


End file.
